A Flag Pillow

My friend Jackie sent me a link to a fun pillow the other night and since I was on my way to the fabric store the next day I thought I'd gather supplies. I had been wanting to try out the rouching technique on something and this seemed like a fun and festive way to do so.

I found the rouching technique to be SUPER easy - although a few times I did pull the thread all the way out because I had over-rouched! Oops! No biggie just had to put it back into the machine and add another stitch and start over. Sewing the star pattern onto the fabric flower was probably the most difficult part because I didn't start in the traditional spot you do to make a star and so I had to draw it out on a piece of paper and concentrate really hard to turn it in the right direction each time. I felt mildly ridiculous that it seemed so complex, but 'drawing' a star, starting in a weird spot on a sewing machine apparently is a complexity for me.


I altered the pillow a little bit, mostly because I didn't want to buy a lot of the navy blue fabric ;) so I made a pillow that ended up being about 10"x8" - I also needed to use a heavier denim in the back because the denim I used wasn't heavy enough on it's own to keep the pillow closed so a bit of whip stitching was required after stuffing, but otherwise it's pretty cute and the method can certainly be translated beyond a patriotic theme. :)

And since Mae was coincidentally dressed in a very American outfit today, I decided to take a picture of her with the pillow... it makes that pillow look giant - which really is a testament to how tiny she is! :)